Monthly Archives: November 2010

Inspired by some of the recent activity on Jon B. Cooke’s blog, 365 days of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, here are some pieces related to the cover of the first issue of The Forever People.

First is a photostat of Kirby’s pencil art with a logo. This photostat was gifted to the Museum by Greg Theakston.

Second is the inked original art that was scanned at New York Comic Con 2010 thanks to Joe and Nadia Mannarino as part of the Museum’s Original Art Digital Archive project. The Forever People’s figures are on a separate piece of paper that has been glued onto a larger piece with an added Superman. Frank Giacoia inked the piece. If you are registered at the What If Kirby website, you can zoom in to see more details of this piece.

Note that Big Bear’s mustache, which Kirby indicated in the pencils, is not inked. Super City also became Super Town.

Third is the color guide taken from the recent Jack Kirby Collector 55, where John Morrow notes that since this was from Kirby’s files, Kirby would have done the color work.

Fourth is the printed cover. Although dated March on the cover, the interior indicia state February-March 1971; this comicbook was on the stands in November or December 1970, with Kirby and DC doing most of the production a month or two before that.

Last is the cover to 1999’s “Jack Kirby’s Forever People” trade paperback, with color and a different Beautiful Dreamer by Digital Chameleon.

I would love to present more iterations of this Kirby-Giacoia artwork. If you have editions in other languages, or any version with notable production differences, please contact me at rhoppe@kirbymuseum.org, and I’ll add them to this entry.